to walk & to listen.

a note on gentrification, animism, & paying attention | + lists, links, recs <3

(not the construction site, but this was at risk of demolition a few decades back, too.)

Dear ones, 

On my walk to and from my neighborhood coffee shop, I pass an ugly mess of fence and broken earth, giant machinery and signs with the name of the building company. The construction site was a battleground for years, a big, uninviting patch of grass that many residents wanted to turn into a park, and others wanted to turn into luxury condos and chain restaurants. Can you guess who won? Every time I see it, my stomach turns. I hate the American flag the construction company flies from the fence, I hate the racist caricature that’s painted on the sides of the equipment, I hate what it means for my rent and the rent of my other low/er-income neighbors. 

But then something sweet happens, against all odds, after my initial rage spike—a Weakerthans song starts playing in my head. In “My Favorite Chords” John K. Samson starts off by softly singing, “They're tearing up streets again, they're building a new hotel/The mayor's out killing kids to keep taxes down.”

The song, like many Weakerthans songs, is a mix of observing the everyday through a radical lens, and also, usually in the same breath, a love song. (Which is kind of the deal of this whole newsletter, can you tell why I love this band?) 

Later in the song, Samson has a proposition to his beloved:

“When you get off work tonight, meet me at the construction site/And we'll write some notes to tape to the heavy machines/

Like: ‘We hope they treat you well, hope you don't work too hard/

We hope you get to be happy sometimes.’” 

He concludes more boldly: “Bring your Swiss-army knife and a bottle of something/And I'll bring some spray paint and a new deck of cards.” It is the sweetest and most romantic invitation for property destruction I ever did hear.